Jonny Clayton beat Luke Humphries 6-1 to win night six of the Premier League in Nottingham and remain top of the table.
‘The Ferret’ continued his brilliant Thursday night form to pull further clear of Luke Littler at the top of the league standings after the back-to-back world champion was beaten by Humphries in the semi-final having faced more boos and whistles from the crowd.
Clayton secured his second nightly win through the pain barrier after suffering from gout and hobbling around the stage throughout the night, but it didn’t impact his performance.
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The Welshman was crucially able to break Humphries before holding throw to open up a two-leg cushion over the former world champion. The league leader then broke Humphries again with an incredible 146 out after Humphries missed a dart at tops.
Clayton held throw again to move one leg away from victory. The win was swiftly wrapped up in double quick time as he punished more missed darts from Humphries to secure five more points, move eight points clear, and pocket £10,000 for the nightly win.
The 52-year-old struggles with gout and his problem flared up in Nottingham as he was left hobbling around the stage.
But it didn’t affect his performance as he dispatched Michael van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting 6-3 in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively. ‘The Ferret’ won the tournament in 2021 and has never missed Finals Night in his three previous campaigns, a record he looks in a good place to extend.
Meanwhile, Humphries came through the harder side of the draw, beating Gian van Veen 6-4 in the quarter-final before drowning out the boos to beat Luke Littler 6-5, holding off the world champion’s comeback to win the deciding leg with a 128 out and a 105.71 average.
Littler had to contend with boos of his own in the quarter-final against Gerwyn Price as ‘The Nuke’ beat the Welshman in a deciding set after earlier roaring in celebration towards the spectators in the near corner of the arena where boos and whistles could be heard coming.